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Iris Chang
Author
Photo Credit: Jimmy Estimada
I learned of Iris Chang
when I picked up a book at the Hong Kong International
Airport bookstore titled, "The Rape of
Nanking". I was a bit puzzled at first since I
had just left Nanjing and spent a good part of the day
before at the Jiang
Dong Meng Memorial in the city built to memorialize
the massacre of 300,000 Chinese people. Historic
accounts there showed how invading Japanese Imperial
Forces raped the historic city during a six week period
beginning December 13, 1937.
I picked up the book and examined its pages
to determine if Nanking and Nanjing were synonymous. I
found my answer in the center of the book where a photo
section confirmed my suspicions; recognizing many of the
photos in the book that I had seen on the walls of the
Memorial; Nanking and Nanjing are one and the
same.
I bought the book and read it on the plane
ride home. By the time I finished the introduction, I
looked over to my husband Bob and said, "I have to
interview this woman (Iris Chang)."
As I combed the pages of undeniable history
and unbelievable descriptions made difficult by the
author's straightforward presentation concerning the
atrocities committed against the people of Nanjing, I
couldn't stop reading but struggled many times to catch
my breath. Apparently I was holding my breath to bear
the truth.
Having grown up on Guam where the memories
of death and war are every present, I was surprised at
how I reacted to the truth about the actions of men at
war. I read it with keen interest, but was emotionally
wrapped up in the reality of what I had seen at the
Memorial.
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| A replica of the protective
wall & entrance, a decapitated head on
cobblestone at the backside of the Nanjing
Memorial.
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Constant in my mind was the
description of the barbaric acts committed by the
Japanese as described by one historian found on
page five of the book's Introduction. In making
the point, the previous paragraph
state:
Must
Read!
"This book provides only the
barest summary of the cruel and barbaric acts
committed by the Japanese in the city ... and so a
few statistics must be used to give the reader an
idea of the scale of the
massacre..." and the historian estimates, "If the dead from Nanking were to
link hands, they would stretch from Nanking to the
city of Hangchow, spanning a distance of some two
hundred miles. Their blood would weigh twelve
hundred tons, and their bodies would fill
twenty-five hundred railroads cars. Stacked on top
of each other, these bodies would reach the height
of a seventy-four-story
building."
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In a
quickly arranged Rlene"Live" telephone interview on
October 29, 2003, Iris Chang spoke to me from California
about her book and personal involvement in a public
education attempt to see the Japanese Government correct
its history books to include the slaughter of Nanking.
The goal hope that by doing so the citizenry of Japan,
especially their youth, will learn the facts about
Japan's movements in the Pacific Theater during the war
and the atrocities committed by Japanese Imperial
Soldiers and civilians during WWII; hoping their
realization will insure history does not repeated
itself.
This is a very important step for many
survivors of the massacre their descendents and
descendents of murdered Chinese during the Japanese
invasion of the City. Especially in light of the failure
of Japan to pay war reparations to the Chinese people or
their continuing obstinate denial of the facts.
Historic
recognition is the least Japan could do to recompense
the actions of many of it's soldiers and civilians in
foreign lands during the war. |
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Never
have I traveled on an airplane and not slept through the
entire flight, sleeping right through all meals; except
the flight home from China. My husband and children
often joke about how keeping me still was the secret to
making me sleep; but that was not the case this time; I
was uncomfortable and restless looking out the window
into the black of the night anxious for a flicker of
light to indicate the end of our flight.
By the
time we got home I was trying to think of anything but
what I had just seen and read about war torn Nanjing and
found myself giving Jehovah God thanks that the Chamorro
people didn't suffer as greatly at the hands of Japanese
Imperial Forces. |
Chang
spoke of hearing about the slaughter from her
grandparents themselves survivors of WWII and the desire
to raise the consciousness from facts of that darkened
period of Chinese history. Chang was very effective in
doing so when she set out to research her book. The Rape
of Nanking is not the first attempt to record the
slaughter of 300,000 people in Nanking, but it is a
continuing effort of historians to shed light on the
atrocities committed in WWII by the Japanese
there.
Strong
resentment against the Japanese still exist with the
Chinese for the memory and continuing denial and
distortion of history by some Japanese politicians,
businessmen, academia and historians. |
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At
the same time, I found myself feeling guilty that I was
thinking that way and fighting self-reproach I thought
necessary for fear that I was suggesting relief it
happened to anyone other than the people of Guam. I
thought of Iris and how she must have felt discovering
the horrific accounts imposed on her people - my chest
tightened as I feared myself in a common place.
After
reading Iris Chang's book I realized that what the
residents of Guam went through paled in comparison but
that war crimes are evidence of an amoral humanity and
there are many victim to include those who committed the
crimes. |
Chang and others would like to see Japanese
aggression war facts against China including forcing of
Chinese women and other Asian women into sex slavery
included as historical fact and in history books in
Japan schools.
Acknowledging
history and
taking corrective attitude towards change is the basis
for peaceful and cooperative relations in the
future.
Iris Chang's book is a wonderful effort and
I am glad I made the time to read it. Even as I write
this my chest tightens in recollection of the
facts. |
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